I have to admit it.
I don’t know why. When I was in the corporate world, as a Tier III tech support and systems engineer, my LIFE was working with people on the telephone to help them resolve problems that were beyond the help desk and Tier II expertise. I could be on the phone literally for hours with one customer.
As a consultant and auditor, likewise.
[br]
So what was the difference?
For one thing, these were people who SOUGHT ME OUT for MY expertise. Or even if I made the outgoing call (that’s how the help desk referred them to me), it was still on MY terms and in MY comfort zone.
I’ve had my own consulting firm since 1997. I didn’t have to do cold calls, because ALL of my business was word of mouth referrals, or referrals from Dell and Microsoft websites for people looking for a local dealer. Once engaged with a customer, I never experienced that dreaded “Cold Call” feeling.
When I first retired, I had tried some MLM sales, and admittedly, HATED the idea that I had to cold call businesses. I’m not sure if it was the “fear of rejection”, or what, but it took all the willpower I had to get up, and pick up that phone to make my first calls of the day. This was in the early 2000’s, and internet usage had not yet exploded the way it has today. People did not have their own websites. This is one of the things my consulting firm did for them but this was generally expensive for people unless they wrapped it with hardware/software sales and service contracts. The Blackberry was the most advanced “smart phone”, and again, prohibitively expensive for the small businesses that made up my customer base.
I’ve been through coaching, and read dozens of books to build my confidence, develop techniques and implement some “crutches” that helped me realize my own potential, and I STILL HATED COLD CALLING.
[br]
A Guru Partner (or three)
I had established a rapport with two particular individuals, both in their own niche, who were self-made internet millionaires. I’ve been doing joint ventures and bought into several projects with Randolph (not his real name). He pushed and pushed, but never got me to jump onboard the cold-calling bandwagon.
Another internet millionaire (I’ll call him Ken) took me by surprise when he called ME. I had been an active participant in some of his projects, and he noticed that I was on 6-8 of his mailing lists. He was looking for like-minded people to start up a new project, and because of my loyalty and following him on many of his projects, he reached out to me.
[br]
Conquer The Fear of Telephone Sales Calls with 3-Way Calls
The thing he did was to assemble a team of 10-20 people. We would be doing 3-way calls, as “silent observers” with Ken actually calling people on MY list of prospects, with Ken doing all the talking. We got to experience the dead ends, bad numbers, phony email addresses, etc. that you find on any prospect list, and we learned how to deal with voice mail and follow-up emails, in addition to the 5% of successful contacts (the ones that we at least had the opportunity to talk with and they gave us the time to talk with them about our products). Ken would spend 1-2 hours a day the first week on 3-way calls with me as an observer, then start to “hand off the baton” to me the second week. By the third week, Ken would move on to the next team member, and one of his “seasoned” team members would observe on my calls for another week or so.
This technique had potential. I learned a lot, but I STILL HATED COLD CALLING. Unfortunately, we had a disagreement about some technical issues I discovered with the products we were selling, and I dropped from the program (I would not endorse a product if there were overwhelming technical issues that were not being addressed by the company).
About the same time, I liked the idea of promoting local businesses, so I had also signed up for WomVegas – it is ALL ABOUT Word of Mouth Advertising. Timothy L. Drobnick Sr has also created a ton of training videos and has recorded LIVE CALLS for you to grasp the techniques. Tim is great, and he often enlisted the help of my own sponsor, who has offered to do 3-way calls. I’ve found that she is pretty busy and in a different time zone, so it has never worked out for us to do any 3-way calls together. There is SO MUCH in WomVegas, and my particular direction was different than hers, but I’m sure if you solicited people on the chat rooms, you could get someone to do one-on-one coaching with you. They (meaning the WomVegas community) would most likely do this for free.
[br]
Guru #1, Randolph – MLM Recruit On Demand Will Eliminate Your Fear of Telephone Sales Calls
We had the opportunity to connect with each other on another project, and he introduced me to MLM Recruit On Demand. I had been ignoring his promo emails about it, because I simply didn’t want to do it.
A THIRD notable internet marketer (Bob – not at “Guru” level but I’ve been following him on some projects) had also been trying to join MLMROD, but I found that he did NOT do telephone solicitations using that system. MLMROD would give him 100 targeted leads, and he would send out emails to have people on that list CALL HIM. He was getting 3-5 calls a WEEK, and some of those actually came through with SALES.
Well, needless to say, the uber-persuasive (and a good friend in addition to being the occasional business partner) Randolph finally got me to break down and sign up. He offered to actually pay the $15 lifetime membership (of course, I declined and paid HIM since he has gotten me into some JV opportunities in which we BOTH made money).
[br]
Brian Gunness Tells How to Conquer your Fear of Telephone Sales Calls
Brian Gunness of MLMROD has put together some excellent training videos, and has had some awesome (yes, I did actually use that word) “listen-in” recordings of people actually handling these calls in different situations. The biggest impact on ME was his statement to one lady who was having real problems with the “live” conversations.
He told her, “If you get a live person, simply hang up or tell them wrong number, and call back when you are more likely to get voicemail then leave a message”. Ingenious!
As a teacher in one of my past lives, I learned that one exposure is generally lost, in fact it can take between 7 and 11 exposures for someone to “get it”. And, people learn differently and may require different WAYS to expose them to a product or service: Visual (See, as with a video), Kinesthetic (hands on), Audio (hear it). You must provide the messages in all of these various media to get the highest impact.
Here’s how I am finally “getting it”:
- Well, the hands on for me was with Ken. The 3-way calls were extremely effective. It’s a shame we could not come to terms on the technical aspects of the product he was promoting.
- The audio was from Viral Express (a free program). Christie is an excellent trainer who had dozens of audio training podcasts, and live training every Monday night (not recorded).
- Visual was from Brian Gunness and his great videos on MLM Recruit On Demand.
Even Bob’s idea is OK, but I would be cautious. Technically, the outgoing messages fall into the category of SPAM. I personally would not venture there. My business depends too much on email marketing, and I would not be able to survive if my email privileges are shut down.
[br]
More About MLMROD. Just Sign Up. Get over Your Fear of Telephone Sales Calls
MLM Recruit On Demand for level P1, costs $15 for LIFETIME membership. You get 100 leads for free. When you run out of leads, and MLMROD staff looks at your contact manager log and sees that you are in fact putting in the effort, simply put in a support ticket and they will load another 100 leads FOR FREE. There are upgrades that get you to higher levels which include initial load of more leads, and there is a “done-for-you” option where the MLMROD call center calls these leads for you. But for someone just starting out, the P1 level should suffice.
MLMROD membership includes all the training videos, and live training sessions every week. Their support is RESPONSIVE, and in fact, many times you will get Brian himself answering your question directly.
[br]
As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, if you want a demo, or are curious about other resources I can share with you.
My contact info:
Rich Moyer
=========================================
I am a CONSULTANT FIRST and SALESMAN LAST.
Paying It Forward…
Call or EMail.
WebcastSource.com
1-484-902-8819 m-f 8am-5pm EDT
Email: richard.moyer.1953@gmail.com
=========================================
PS
Would you like 3 -5 new people looking at your MLM biz per day?
If yes, check this out. MLM Recruit On Demand
If yes, check this out. MLM Recruit On Demand
Have you seen the travel savings you could get by joining
Fun Time Travel Club to get the 4-in-One Discount Travel Card?
For some additional resources to help with your promotions,
see my latest posts and promos:
(the following are rotators – a different webpage every time you
click the link)
Check out the Featured eBook or Video (most are free)
You can find the Featured ClickBank Product by clicking this link.
Look here for the Featured Traffic Source:
And finally, See my Featured Major Project
Check Out Life Balance Network
Background: Bison in Yellowstone National Park 2013